Pulp Fiction

Tarantino wrote Pulp Fiction in 1992 and 1993, incorporating scenes that Avary originally wrote for True Romance (1993). Its plot occurs out of chronological order. The film is also self-referential from its opening moments, beginning with a title card that gives two dictionary definitions of “pulp”. Considerable screen time is devoted to monologues and casual conversations with eclectic dialogue revealing each character’s perspectives on several subjects, and the film features an ironic combination of humor and strong violence. TriStar Pictures reportedly turned down the script as “too demented”. Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein was enthralled, however, and the film became the first that Miramax fully financed.

Pulp Fiction won the Palme d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and was a major critical and commercial success. It was nominated for seven awards at the 67th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won Best Original Screenplay; it earned Travolta, Jackson, and Thurman Academy Award nominations and boosted their careers. Its development, marketing, distribution, and profitability had a sweeping effect on independent cinema.

Pulp Fiction is widely regarded as Tarantino’s magnum opus, with particular praise for its screenwriting. The self-reflexivity, unconventional structure, and extensive homage and pastiche have led critics to describe it as a touchstone of postmodern film. It is often considered a cultural watershed, influencing films and other media that adopted elements of its style. The cast was also widely praised, with Travolta, Thurman, and Jackson earning particular acclaim. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named it the best film since 1983 and it has appeared on many critics’ lists of the greatest films ever made. In 2013, Pulp Fiction was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Pulp Fiction’s narrative is told out of chronological order and follows three main interrelated stories that each have a different protagonist: Vincent Vega, a hitman; Butch Coolidge, a prizefighter; and Jules Winnfield, Vincent’s business partner.

The film begins with a diner hold-up staged by a couple, then begins to shift from one storyline to another before returning to the diner for the conclusion. There are seven narrative sequences; the three primary storylines are preceded by intertitles:

1. “Prologue – The Diner” (i)
2. Prelude to “Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace’s Wife”
3. “Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace’s Wife”
4. Prelude to “The Gold Watch” (a – flashback, b – present)
5. “The Gold Watch”
6. “The Bonnie Situation”
7. “Epilogue – The Diner” (ii)

If the seven sequences were ordered chronologically, they would run: 4a, 2, 6, 1, 7, 3, 4b, 5. Sequences 1 and 7 partially overlap and are presented from different points of view, as do sequences 2 and 6. According to Philip Parker, the structural form is “an episodic narrative with circular events adding a beginning and end and allowing references to elements of each separate episode to be made throughout the narrative”. Other analysts describe the structure as a “circular narrative”.

Summary

Two hitmen, Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega, arrive at an apartment to retrieve a briefcase for their boss, the gangster Marsellus Wallace, from a business partner, Brett. After Vincent checks the contents of the briefcase, Jules shoots one of Brett’s associates. He declaims a passage from the Bible, and he and Vincent kill Brett for trying to double-cross Marsellus.

“Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace’s Wife”

Jules and Vincent give the briefcase to Marsellus, who bribes boxer Butch Coolidge to take a dive in his upcoming match. The next day, Vincent purchases heroin from his drug dealer, Lance. He shoots up and drives to meet Marsellus’s trophy wife, Mia, having agreed to escort her while Marsellus is out of town. They eat at a 1950s-themed restaurant and participate in a twist contest, then return home. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Mia finds his heroin, mistakes it for cocaine, and snorts it, resulting in an overdose. Vincent rushes her to Lance’s house, where they revive her with an injection of adrenaline into her heart. Vincent takes Mia home, and they agree never to tell Marsellus about the incident.

“The Gold Watch”

Butch bets the bribe money on himself and double-crosses Marsellus, winning the bout but also accidentally killing his opponent. He prepares to flee with his girlfriend, Fabienne, but discovers she has forgotten to pack a gold watch passed down to him through his family. Returning to his apartment to retrieve it, he notices a gun on the kitchen counter and hears the toilet flush. When Vincent exits the bathroom, Butch shoots him dead and departs.

When Marsellus spots Butch stopped at a traffic light, Butch rams his car into him. Marsellus chases him into a pawnshop. Maynard, the shop owner, captures them at gunpoint and binds and gags them in the basement. Maynard and his accomplice, Zed, take Marsellus into another room and begin to rape him. Butch breaks loose and is about to escape, but decides to save Marsellus and arms himself with a katana from the pawnshop. He kills Maynard and frees Marsellus, who shoots Zed in the crotch with Maynard’s shotgun. Marsellus tells Butch that they are even, and instructs him to tell no one about the incident and depart Los Angeles forever. Butch picks up Fabienne on Zed’s chopper and they drive away.

“The Bonnie Situation”

In the apartment, after Jules and Vincent kill Brett, another man bursts out of the bathroom and fires at them. Every shot misses and they shoot him dead. While driving away with Brett’s associate, Marvin, Jules says that their survival was a miracle, which Vincent disputes. Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin dead, covering Vincent, Jules, and the car interior in blood. They hide the car at the home of Jules’s friend Jimmie, who demands they deal with the problem before his wife Bonnie comes home. Marsellus sends a cleaner, Winston Wolfe, who directs Jules and Vincent to clean the car, hide the body in the trunk, dispose of their bloody clothes and take the car to a junkyard.

At a diner, Jules tells Vincent that he plans to retire from his life of crime, convinced that their survival at the apartment was divine intervention. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, a pair of robbers, hold up the restaurant and demand Marsellus’s briefcase. Jules overpowers Pumpkin and holds him at gunpoint. Honey Bunny becomes hysterical and points her gun at Jules. Vincent returns with his gun aimed at her, but Jules defuses the situation. He recites the biblical passage, expresses ambivalence about his life of crime, and allows the robbers to take his cash and leave. Jules and Vincent leave the diner with the briefcase.